Chungking Express

1994

Director: Wong Kar-Wai

Cinematographer: Christopher Doyle

Stars: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Brigette Lin, Faye Wong

Despite on how much has been written about this movie, the basic plot is pretty simple. It's the story of two cops dealing with love and realtionships in the fast-paced world of Hong Kong. The first part concentrates on Takeshi Kaneshiro as he pines for the girlfriend who dumped him. Every night, he goes through a series of strange rituals hoping to get her back. When they seem to fail, he goes on a series of binges, first eating all the pineapple he can pick up and then heading to a local watering hole where he gets well and truly soused, after which he meets up with a mysterious smuggler played by Brigette Lin (in her last film role and nearly unrecognizable in a blonde wig and big sunglasses). The second story focuses on Tony Leung, who also has gone through a break-up, as he develops a strange relationship with a girl who works at a local cafe (Faye Wong).

At first, I really did not know what to think about this movie. Like most of Wong Kar-Wai's works, it's at times obtuse and almost overly self-indulgent. However, there are so many scenes in Chungking Express which stick in your mind -- almost like fleeting images from a dream -- that by the end of the movie, or especially after repeated viewings, that it tends to grow on you, like the guy at the bar who you think is obnoxious at first but turns out to be a pretty good chap in the end. I will grant that there are some parts of the movie which seem totally silly and absurd. For instance, Faye has a habit of breaking into Tony's apartment and rearranging his furniture -- and Tony never seems to realize this. There are also parts which seem to translate into movie-making mastrubation, such as the seemingly infinite repeating renditions of "California Dreaming." The song is Faye's favorite and it plays almost every time she is onscreen at very high volume. I'm aware of what a musical motif is, but at times the repitition get ridiculous.

But, as I said before, there are a lot of scenes in Chungking Express which hold your attention and make the story more credible as a whole. Perhaps not coincidentally, these scenes are often those which feature the least gimmicks to them, the ones where the actors can simply work. The scenes where Takeshi tries to pick up Brigette by asking her if she likes pineapple in five different languages, Tony berating his dishrag for not having enough absorbency, or especially the small scenes of Tony and Faye meeting up in a local market and awkwardly flirting, are both funny and powerful in a quiet way. It is in these scenes that Chungking Express transcends typical romantic movie territory becuase the characters become something more than cookie-cutter caricatures as present in most other movies of the type. Even though their actions seem "unreal/unbelivable" (in terms of the romantic movie canon) at first, the more we learn and see about them, the more you feel connected to them -- and more importantly, the more you care about where the movie will lead to.

If you've read some of my reviews here, you can probably guess that I'm normally not a big fan of either romantic or "art-house" movies. But I feel that Chungking Express is so well-done that it warrants a viewing from anyone who considers themselves a serious movie fan. If you want to expand your Hong Kong movie horizons to something other than cops and robbers or kung fu, this is an excellent place to start.

RATING: 9

A couple of notes about the movie:

• Chungking Express was actually done during the editing of Wong Kar-Wai's Ashes of Time, as Wong was having "editor's block" and needed something to cleanse his pallette. Almost none of the script was completed before shooting -- Wong only knew that he wanted to look at relationships in Hong Kong. Wong would write scenes during the day and then have the actors work them out at night.



• As I mentioned before, this was Brigette Lin's final film role, even though techincally, Ashes of Time (which Lin also starred in) came out later. Wong wanted her to wear the blonde wig in order to both poke fun at and take advantage of the Greta Garbo vibe Brigette carried with her. At this point in Hong Kong film history, Brigette was a huge star in Asia after the popular Swordsman trilogy, but shied away from the limelight, just as Garbo had. After Chungking Express, Lin (like many HK actresses) married "out" of the movie industry with a relationship with a businessman, in this case one of the founders of the "Espirit" clothing company -- perhaps, not coincendentally, one of the major corporate sponsors of the movie. In a bit of history repeating itself, Lin in retirement has become like Garbo in her later years -- at least accrding to various press reports and internet rumors -- staying away from the movie industry and formal interviews, but remaining a very nice person. She can still be seen walking along the streets of Hong Kong (her sister owns a shop there).



• On the other side of the coin, this was Faye Wong's first role in a movie (though she had worked on a few soap operas before). Even though Chungking Express was a success with both critics and fans, Faye decided to keep concentrating on her musical career and did not make another movie until 2000's Okinowa Rendevous. On closer inspection though, Faye seems to have a lot in common with Brigette, which makes a nice parallel with their contrasting characters in the movie -- Faye bring the wide-eyed dreamer and Brigette being the world-weary veteran. After attaining some success in her musical career, Faye broke with tradition by singing in Mandarin rather than Cantonese, while at the same time bringing more of a western influence to her work (she sings the Chinese cover of the Cranberries' "Dreams" featured on the soundtrack). Like Brigette, she has a pretty icy relationship with the formal press (especially after their reaction to her and young HK teen heart-throb Nicholas Tse's realtionship after Faye had broke up with her husband), but is considered to be extremely friendly to her fans.



• Wong Kar-Wai orginally intended for Chungking Express to be a trilogy of stories, but financing prevented him from filming the third story. He would later pick up on this -- albeit somewhat loosely -- with Fallen Angels.



• In order to get financing for the movie, Wong Kar-Wai had to promote it as a gangster romance/drama (similar to his earlier films like Days of Being Wild).

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